Account Executive
Best for senior and mid-level candidates
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Account executives are the foundation on which effective sales engines are built. Whether addressing the needs of a current customer to retain them or demoing a product for a potential new client, an effective account executive drives revenue for a business.
Because account executives handle so many responsibilities, it can be difficult to translate your wide-ranging skills and responsibilities into a one-page resume. Luckily, we’ve got more than our share of resume tips to make building a resume easier than ever!
We’ve analyzed numerous account executive resumes at every career ladder level to determine what works to get you more interviews. Then we distilled what we learned into 12 sample account executive resumes to ensure you put your best foot forward.
Why this resume works
- Hiring managers always look for candidates who will increase their business’ success. So, you should clearly demonstrate the impact of your work on your account executive resume.
- Are you driving sales, renewals, and upgrades for your business? Did you exceed targets, and if so, by how much? Did you outperform on lead generation? Answer these questions to demonstrate to the hiring manager that you’ll significantly impact your future workplace.
- Although your main focus should always be on your content, don’t feel like you have to neglect aesthetics.
- Using a resume template can not only improve your formatting but also showcase some creative flair. Wouldn’t you rather read a resume with a unique layout and some color over a black and white list?
Why this resume works
- Your entry-level account executive resume can (and likely should) contain a resume objective.
- Include your desired job title, the name of the business you’re applying to, and any applicable skills.
- Remember that if you include an objective, you have to tailor it for each job to which you apply, so if you’re short on time, skip this section and opt for more work experience.
- Writing your resume can feel intimidating when you’re light on experience, but there are ways around it.
- Consider including internships, projects, applicable activities, or hobbies to your resume. Employers simply want to know that you can do the job, so including relevant activities is a smart choice if you haven’t held many jobs yet.
Why this resume works
- Your junior account executive resume should catch a recruiter’s attention right away with metrics and other examples of your success.
- Does your resume look somewhat sparse? Add a projects section! You can add academic projects, club memberships, side projects, or even volunteer work. Bonus: you can write these exactly like work experience bullet points, so you can add metrics!
- Measurable achievements can be a difficult area for junior-level applicants, so pick whichever of your accomplishments that delivers the most powerful impact.
- Having an associate’s degree will certainly further your quest for an account executive position, and a bachelor’s degree is even better—list these in your resume if you have them!
- Even if you don’t have a college degree, you can still make an impact by listing relevant skills in your resume’s skills section. Working them into your work experience bullet points is also a plus!
- Add any additional courses or training classes you’ve taken, too.
Why this resume works
- By this time, you likely know the basics of how to write a resume, but that shouldn’t stop you from using a resume template to make the process easier.
- Templates are good for organizing your thoughts, and they’re even better at helping your format your resume so hiring managers and the ATS can read it. So, don’t be wary of using one for your senior account executive resume!
- As a senior employee, you likely have a bevy of additional responsibilities that don’t necessarily fit under your work experience.
- You can always include optional sections like certifications or projects to highlight experience that’s not quite a job. Of course, employers prefer to see work experience, but don’t avoid using these sections if they’re relevant.
Why this resume works
- Recruiters want to see success in past campaigns for a potential advertising account executive. Include your metrics from past roles that tested and proved your competencies.
- Let them see in your account executive advertising resume increased sales, improved customer engagement, successful ads that bring business growth, etc.
Why this resume works
- Show confidence as a SAAS account executive to develop leads and convert them into business. You can do this by showcasing your negotiation skills and conversion of prospects into contracts.
- Let your sales figures, revenue-generation milestones, and creative business solutions buoy your SAAS account executive resume to a potential employer.
Why this resume works
- When you’re looking for your next role as a sales account executive, it’s best to create your resume to reflect what the company is looking for in the account executive job description.
- For example, if the employer wants someone with experience with long sales cycles, then you should mention any experience that’s relevant to that specific requirement.
- You should also pay attention to the overall size of the business to which you’re applying. For example, if only have experience with small businesses, you’ll need to be honest about that in your sales account executive resume.
- Space is precious on your resume, so cut out fluff.
- Start by cutting any unnecessary adjectives or adverbs. Common ones include “successfully,” “closely,” and “as needed.” You should also cut personal pronouns in your bullet points.
- All the details you’d like to include about your projects and works success are best saved for writing your account executive cover letter.
Why this resume works
- If you have more than 10 years of experience, you can add a resume summary to act as a highlight reel on your key account executive resume.
- Add anything relating to your most relevant achievements. It can help to look at the account executive job description to see what employers might want to see in your summary.
- Furthermore, ask yourself how you’ve helped your past employers. Did you generate millions in sales? Did you manage key accounts?
- Since key account executives are typically senior employees, you must demonstrate a wide range of responsibilities throughout your work history.
- This can be include working larger accounts, leading projects, or creating new sales strategies. Maybe you lead junior account managers or executives—anything that demonstrates leadership and increased duties as you’ve grown in your career.
Why this resume works
- Writing your marketing account executive resume can be difficult. How are you supposed to convey years of experience on a single page?
- Our recommendation: write everything you want in the resume outline. Once you’ve written everything, rephrase your work experience bullet points so they start with action verbs (like “spearheaded,” “enacted,” “drove,” and “calculated”).
- Next, cut out unnecessary words (especially adjectives and adverbs). You might have to rewrite some things, but it’s worth it to make space!
- One of the easiest (and best) ways to save on space is by including metrics. Fortunately, as an account executive, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding good numbers.
- Include numbers and percentages relating to ROI, campaign results, quotas and sales targets you met, the total number of clients/teammates you helped, number of events attended annually, or how much revenue you generated.
Why this resume works
- Your mid-market account executive resume is easier to write than you might think (no, really) because you have so much you can include. After all, you handle tasks involved PR, marketing, finance, advertising, and sales—you’ve got quite the repertoire!
- The hard part will be condensing your information, but you can adjust your resume format to help make space. And don’t forget to check your resume to cut out any unnecessary words or errors!
- If you’re struggling to get your resume to where you want it, remember that you’re trying to cover each part of the cusomer lifecycle across your entire resume. You don’t need to include everything for each job title.
- Instead, imagine you’re highlighting one or two skills per work experience bullet point. Then go back and make sure you’ve hit every part of the customer lifecycle, and you’ve got a winning resume!
Why this resume works
- Although it may feel silly, don’t forget the relevance of social media platforms when writing your public relations account executive resume.
- Mentioning how you used LinkedIn to scout and secure clients will appeal to any hiring manager.
- If you want to highlight your personal accounts, here’s a handy resume tip: you can include your profile URLs in your contact header! It’s highly likely they’re going to review your accounts eventually, so make it as easy as possible.
- You’ve likely heard the adage “show, don’t tell,” but how does that apply to your resume?
- Instead of telling the hiring manager about your skills, use numbers to prove that you’ve made a positive impact. Numbers help you to objectively state your worth without taking up too much space (or sounding arrogant).
- You should also include certifications if you have them since they show you have the necessary training to succeed as an account executive.
Why this resume works
- If you’re applying for a higher-level position, you should deliberately show growth throughout your experience section. When hoping to advance your career, you should always highlight your past improvement (like if you went from an intern to an executive, for example).
- We’d recommend using a reverse-chronological format to showcase how you’ve climbed the career ladder.
- You’re at the level of expertise where formatting your resume nicely really counts, so pay special attention to the format of your enterprise account executive resume.
- Reading from left to right, you can “flip” the arrangement of your resume to your advantage. If your experience is the real showstopper, place it on the left in block format. If you’d rather highlight your skills, keep those on the left.
Related resume guides
4 Resume Tips for Account Executives
Before we get into the weeds, let’s make on thing clear about your account executive resume; the single most important thing you should do is quantify your impact. Employers are looking for how future employees will benefit the company, so if you can prove that you’ve done so at your previous workplaces, hiring managers are bound to be impressed.
Outside of that, there are a few other tips you can use to maximize your chance of getting an interview:
- Customize your resume for each job to which you apply
- Include common skills employers are looking for in account executives
- Optimize your resume objective for your career stage
We’ll dive into each of these tips in more detail below, but before we do, we’ll give you another top tip: proofread, proofread, proofread.
Grammar and spelling errors are the worst reason not to get an interview. And since hiring managers are reviewing hundreds of resumes, so they’re looking for an excuse to say “no.”
Don’t give them an easy reason to say “no,” and instead check your resume diligently for any errors, no matter how small.
Account executive job description for resume
Tailoring your resume for each account executive role you apply to is a lot of work. That’s why this step will increase your chances of getting an interview; people rarely do it! By spending that extra time, you can increase your chances of getting an interview by over 25 percent.
When customizing your resume for the job, use this basic methodology:
- Read the job description. Do any specific projects or achievements come to mind as you read it? If so, add them to your resume in your work experience section.
- Look for keywords in the job descriptions (a specific CRM or sales methodology, for example). If you have those skills, add them to your resume skills section.
Let’s review an example to see what this looks like in practice.
Example: Customize your account executive resume for the job
Work background
If you have more years of experience as an account manager than as an account executive, this is how we might describe your latest work experience:
USPay
August 2017 – Present, New York NY
Account Executive
- Led development of demo strategy for a new product offering, targeting large financial institutions, which were used to generate $2.9M in annual revenue
- Worked with SDRs to hone in on target customer personas based on customer conversations which reduced costs by 15% while improving close rate by 22%
- Performed regular checks of existing account holders to ensure their needs were being met, resulting in an annual retention rate of 3 percentage points above the plan
Account executive job description
This is a job description for an account executive role at ACME Corp:
What you’ll do:
- Cultivate and maintain a solid pipeline of well-qualified leads
- Take charge of your sales cycles, from initial prospecting and opportunity identification all the way to sale closure and managing the post-sale relationship
- Be a high-touch sales rep who builds strong client connections and gains insight into how the ACME Corp solution can create maximum value for our customers
- Develop expertise and become a go-to resource for information on ACME Corp and on the customer experience management industry
- Land and expand is a key strategy to our growth—you will be expected to develop and maintain key accounts and identify opportunities for the company to continue to deliver value, and demonstrate the impact our product has on the client’s customer success strategy
- Keep track of everything—new leads, deal progress, marketing commitments, and success rates—so you can report back to your manager on how awesome you are on a regular basis
Update the work experience
It seems like this account executive role is a bit further up in the sales cycle. Let’s assume you’ve have some of these responsibilities, but it’s not a perfect fit. Let’s tailor it!
Let’s start by fixing the first bullet point. Remove the focus on product demos and replace it with experience on prospecting (changes underlined). Then, since they want someone who also manages the post-sale relationships, the bullet point about performing regular check-ins is a great one to keep. Now this looks more like the job description!
Feedzai
August 2017 – Present, New York NY
Account Executive
- Led the customer prospecting and opportunity identification for a new product offering, targeting large financial institutions which were used to generate $2.9M in annual revenue
- Worked closely with SDRs to hone in on target customer personas based on customer conversations which reduced costs by 15% while improving close rate by 22%
- Performed regular check-ins with existing account holders to ensure their needs were being met, resulting in an annual retention rate of 3 percentage points above the plan
The changes don’t need to be drastic. Make small alterations to each of your work experience sections until they more closely echo the job description (but never exactly match, since that’s a red flag).
Resume skills
You’ve got another opportunity to customize your resume with your resume’s skills section.
Let’s back up and give some context:
Before the hiring manager or recruiter looks at your resume, an automated system called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will score it. The ATS is simply looking to see whether or not your resume contains certain keywords.
For example, if a job description repeatedly says they are looking for someone with inside sales experience, you can be sure the ATS will be looking for the keyword “inside sales experience.”
With that said, keep your skills section to your top five to ten skills. Listing more than that is a red flag for employers, as is listing any fewer. Around six to eight skills is a good amount to hit.
Common resume skills for account executives
- Written and Verbal Communication
- Contract Negotiation
- Presentation
- Organization
- Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Word, Excel)
- CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)
- Problem-solving
- Sales Fundamentals and Relationship Building
- Follow-ups
- Detail-oriented
- Time Management
- Multi-tasking
- Building Client Relationships
- Sales Reporting
- Phone Sales
- Inside Sales
- Self-motivated
Resume objective
Let’s be real about your resume objective or resume summary. The majority of the time, you don’t need one.
They take up space that can be used for work experience, and they’re usually generic and lacking in any real value. Since you want everything on your account executive resume to increase your chances of an interview, you need to consider whether or not it’s worth it including a summary or an objective.
Our recommendation? Unless you’re going to customize it for each job you apply to, you’re better off not having a summary or an objective.
With that said, here are some examples of effective resume objectives and summaries for account executives to give you some inspiration.
Account executive resume objective/summary examples
- “Seasoned account executive with 6+ years of experience in high-value B2B enterprise sales. Looking to leverage my ability to build meaningful relationships with prospective customers in an environment like ACME Corp where I can contribute to the mission of democratizing online payments across the world.”
- “Through my extensive experience with inside sales, I’ve learned repeatable, scaleable strategies to better prospect clients and remove objections, resulting in an additional $10M a year for my past employers. Looking to continue to further hone my inside sales skills at an early-stage, growing SaaS company like ACME Corp.”
- “Senior key account executive with 10+ years of experience across the entire sales cycle for small and enterprise B2B companies, generating millions in sales. Looking for an opportunity to utilize my data-driven account management style to manage key accounts at a top-performing health company like ACME Corp.”
Measure your impact
The most valuable thing you can do to maximize your chances of getting an interview as an account executive is to use numbers on your resume.
This accomplishes a few goals:
Why this resume works
- It draws attention, meaning the hiring manager will spend more time reviewing your resume.
- It convinces the hiring manager that since you’ve had a measurable impact in your past roles, it’s likely you’ll have a similar impact in the role for which they’re hiring.
- It demonstrates your keen knowledge of which metrics an account executive should be improving.
As an account executive, there are a whole host of metrics on which you can focus. You don’t have to give precise numbers, either—rough estimates are okay.
Here are some questions you can ask to figure out how to include metrics in your work experience on your resume:
- How did I perform against sales targets? How much revenue did I generate for the business?
- How was my close rate? Was it better than average? By how much?
- How was the retention rate for accounts I managed? How much revenue did that generate?
- Did the accounts I managed generate upgrade revenue? How much?
- How many leads did I generate, and how much revenue did they develop?
- How effective were my product demos in increasing adoption or close rate?
Again, this is not an exact science. You’re just trying to show that you are data-driven and know which metrics are the most important drivers of a business.
Here’s a specific example of a work experience description with and without numbers to clarify. Which do you think is more convincing?
WRONG – no quantifiable metrics
Acme Corp
August 2016 – May 2018, New York NY
Account Executive
- Led inside sales efforts as the startup grew from year to year
- Introduced and analyzed sales strategies to improve lead generation performance iteratively
- Worked closely with the executive team to overhaul onboarding processes, which improved product adoption rate
RIGHT – quantifiable impact
Acme Corp
August 2016 – May 2018, New York NY
Account Executive
- Led inside sales efforts as the startup grew from $5M in annual revenue to $27M
- Introduced and analyzed sales strategies to improve lead generation performance by 35% year over year
- Worked closely with the executive team to overhaul onboarding processes, which improved product adoption rate by 26%
We know applying for jobs is exhausting and stressful, but we believe in you! Follow your resume up by using a cover letter generator.
And remember, keep your head up, keep applying, and follow these resume examples and tips so you can start interviewing for your next account executive role in no time!
